“In other words, all I want to be is the Jane Austen of south Alabama”

“Here was a woman about the year 1800 writing without hate, without bitterness, without fear, without protest, without preaching. That was how Shakespeare wrote, I thought, looking at Antony and Cleopatra; and when people compare Shakespeare and Jane Austen, they may mean that the minds of both had consumed all impediments; and for that reason we do not know Jane Austen and we do not know Shakespeare, and for that reason Jane Austen pervades every word that she wrote, and so does Shakespeare.”

“Jane Austen? I feel that I am approaching dangerous ground. The reputation of Jane Austen is surrounded by cohorts of defenders who are ready to do murder for their sacred cause.”

“How I wish I lived in a Jane Austen novel!”

“All the Jane Austen in the library cannot wash the Queens from this little hand.”

“Others beside Jane Austen have made their Eltons, though none quite so cooly as she.”